{"id":291069,"date":"2026-02-10T20:09:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-10T20:09:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/291069\/"},"modified":"2026-02-10T20:09:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-10T20:09:10","slug":"us-man-told-father-he-would-always-love-him-as-he-strangled-him-at-ballyfin-demesne-court-hears-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/291069\/","title":{"rendered":"US man told father he would \u2018always love him\u2019 as he strangled him at Ballyfin Demesne, court hears \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A US<\/a> national described \u201cin detail\u201d how he strangled his 66-year-old father with his bare hands and told him he would \u201calways love him as he had his last breath\u201d, an hour after arriving at a Midlands resort, a Central Criminal Court<\/a> jury has heard.<\/p>\n

Opening the trial of Henry McGowan, who has pleaded not guilty to the murder of his father by reason of insanity, the prosecuting barrister also said despite being notified by the UK\u2019s Metropolitan Police<\/a> the accused was travelling to Ireland and there was some concern for his welfare, garda\u00ed<\/a> failed to locate him at Dublin Airport<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The jury also heard the accused was under the delusion the person he was killing was not his father but \u201can impostor\u201d. Expert psychiatrists for both the prosecution and defence were in agreement that Henry McGowan was experiencing a relapse of schizoaffective disorder when he killed his father.<\/p>\n

McGowan (31), with an address at Clinton Street, Brooklyn, New York, in the US, has pleaded not guilty by reason of insanity to the murder of John McGowan (66) at Ballyfin Demesne, Ballyfin, Portlaoise, Co Laois<\/a>, on November 12th, 2024.<\/p>\n

Opening the prosecution\u2019s case on Tuesday, Will Fennelly BL said the trial would hear from expert consultant psychiatrists for both the prosecution and defence, who have the same opinion that a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity was open to the jurors.<\/p>\n

Fennelly said shortly before 8pm on November 12th, 2024, investigators received a phone call alerting them to an incident which occurred in a cubicle off the swimming pool at the five-star hotel in Co Laois. <\/p>\n

Fennelly said the jury would hear garda\u00ed went to the hotel after 8pm and found John McGowan in a state \u201cof at least serious injury, if not death\u201d.<\/p>\n

Emergency services arrived and John McGowan was pronounced dead in due course.<\/p>\n

Shortly before 11pm on November 11th, Henry McGowan arrived at Dublin Airport from London. <\/p>\n

He said garda\u00ed had looked for him at the airport following a notification from the Metropolitan Police but garda\u00ed could not locate him. <\/p>\n

At 8.30am on November 12th, he presented himself at the Mater hospital\u2019s emergency department. <\/p>\n

Henry McGowan told medical staff he was having mental health challenges and was seeking some assistance. In the meantime, counsel said John McGowan was en route from the US because his son Henry had been in phone communication from Paris with his family in the preceding days. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere was an exchange between the accused and family members, which caused considerable concern as to his welfare,\u201d Fennelly said.<\/p>\n

Giving evidence on Tuesday, Det Insp Diarmaid Lawlor told Brendan Grehan SC, prosecuting, that John McGowan was a successful businessman who worked on the New York Stock Exchange.<\/p>\n

He said Henry McGowan graduated from the University of Virginia and worked for a technology firm. The accused was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2022 and has no previous convictions.<\/p>\n

When the accused presented himself at the Mater hospital he told doctors he was talking to God who was telling him what to do, Lawlor said. He said the defendant was on and off his antipsychotic medication.<\/p>\n

The accused\u2019s father told doctors in the hospital his son had been hypomanic for six months and that he had come to Ireland as he was concerned Henry was manic. <\/p>\n

The detective said the accused admitted to the doctors he had a historic diagnosis of cannabis use and a family history of bipolar affective disorder. Lawlor said doctors didn\u2019t feel he met the threshold for admission into a psychiatric unit at the time.<\/p>\n

John McGowan arrived at Dublin Airport from New York on November 12th and went to his son at the hospital around midday, Fennelly said. <\/p>\n

The evidence will be that a prescription was issued for the accused\u2019s mental health difficulties and that both men left the hospital at 3.40pm. <\/p>\n

The McGowans then took a taxi to Ballyfin Demesne. <\/p>\n

The manager found the accused perfectly normal and engaging, said the barrister. The accused was later shown to the pool and given a pair of swimming togs. The court will hear evidence that shortly afterwards, a member of staff observed the accused walking along the poolside naked and notified the manager.<\/p>\n

In the interim, John McGowan had also gone to the swimming pool area and was observed on CCTV speaking to his son. The accused put on a robe before both men went into the cubicle area. Counsel said the father and son remained in there for a number of minutes, after which the accused emerged naked and jumped into the pool. He then got out, wrapped a towel around him and left the area. <\/p>\n

When the manager inquired about the accused\u2019s father, counsel said the jury would hear Henry McGowan said \u201che is not my father\u201d. The court will hear the manager went back down to the pool\u2019s dressing area, where he found John McGowan lying on the ground. <\/p>\n

His body and upper head was covered with a robe and there was a pool of blood. Two staff members performed CPR but he was pronounced dead by a doctor shortly after this. <\/p>\n

Fennelly said garda\u00ed arrived at the hotel around 8.15pm and found the accused sitting in the library, looking at a fire,dressed in his father\u2019s clothes. When asked what happened, he told garda\u00ed he had hurt his father. \u201cI killed who I thought was my father … downstairs I hit his head against the wall and strangled him,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The accused was formally arrested. Fennelly said the cause of death was asphyxia due to manual strangulation and compression of the mouth.<\/p>\n

Henry McGowan was interviewed on four occasions by garda\u00ed, where he told them he had been diagnosed with a bipolar condition at 27. <\/p>\n

Counsel said the accused told detectives he had strangled his father in a bathroom and had told him he would \u201calways love him as he had his last breath\u201d.<\/p>\n

When asked in interview what had happened, the accused told garda\u00ed he killed \u201cwho he thought was not his father, hit his head against a wall and strangled him\u201d.<\/p>\n

In his interviews with garda\u00ed he said he felt like he had to claim his life back from his father.<\/p>\n

The defendant told garda\u00ed his father had started yelling at him like a child because he was naked. <\/p>\n

\u201cHe said I had to take my medication, to me it felt like he was forcing me, I didn\u2019t follow the plan,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

The accused said his father\u2019s anger made him \u201csuper angry\u201d and then he killed him. <\/p>\n

The trial continues on Wednesday before Justice Paul McDermott and a jury of six men and six women. <\/p>\n

. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A US national described \u201cin detail\u201d how he strangled his 66-year-old father with his bare hands and told…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289729,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[45,42851,11900,61,60,8285,6238,43,115],"class_list":{"0":"post-291069","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-an-garda-siochana","9":"tag-central-criminal-court","10":"tag-dublin-airport","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-laois","14":"tag-metropolitan-police","15":"tag-news","16":"tag-united-states"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=291069"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/291069\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289729"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=291069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=291069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=291069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}